DEVELOP YOUR OWN SOIL HEALTH PROTOCOL
Woods End Laboratories provides scientific expertise and laboratory services to help you design and implement comprehensive soil health assessments. Our approach supports the development of complementary tests that reflect the full biological and physical functioning of soils-consistent with the goals of regenerative and sustainable land management.
Many ask, what is a soil health test?
It is not simply a new parameter added to a conventional fertility analysis. The goal of soil health testing is to evaluate a diverse range of properties that represent soil function, resilience, and long-term productivity. Unfortunately, standard laboratory procedures, such as heat drying and grinding, often damage the biological integrity of soils before testing even begins. These practices arose from proficiency programs designed to reduce analytical variability, but they often do so at the expense of relevance to real soil function.
Modern high-throughput laboratories have largely maintained these outdated methods, adapting “soil health” to fit their existing production models rather than redefining their methods to suit the science. The result is a proliferation of superficial soil health indices that neglect how sampling, handling, and preparation affect biological and physical indicators. Farmers and consultants are too often presented with numerical “soil health scores” that lack transparency, validation, or true biological meaning.
At Woods End, we take a different approach. Our laboratory methods are grounded in rigorous scientific evidence and decades of evaluation. We recognize that soil organic matter and organic nitrogen accumulation—key outcomes of good biological management—play central roles in soil structure and aggregate stability. No single metric can capture these complex interactions; instead, we integrate multiple indicators through our Solvita® Soil Health Suite.
THE SOLVITA SOIL HEALTH SUITE
The Solvita Suite offers a practical, evidence-based framework for assessing soil biological and physical quality. By combining complementary measurements with interpretive weighting factors, our system allows for a more precise and meaningful understanding of soil function than isolated tests can provide. These tools are equally valuable for research, demonstration, and education.
STEPS TO SUCCESS:
Woods End’s professional staff can guide you through the process of developing or enhancing your own soil health testing program—from identifying missing biological and biophysical parameters to implementing appropriate laboratory protocols.
Contact Woods End to arrange a discussion about how to build or strengthen your soil health testing program with scientific rigor and confidence.